“What if I refuse?” I asked.
Liam stopped, his broad back stiff before he spun, aggressively stepping into my space. I held firm, though it was difficult considering the furious expression on his face.
“Your body will continue to cannibalize itself until you lose who you once were and become a danger to everyone and everything around you. At which point they will call me to put you down like a rabid dog.” Curling his lip, he snarled as he backed me into the wall.“I will not allow you to put me in such a position.”
I nodded.“Got it.”
He remained still, examining me, searching for any hint of subterfuge. For once, there wasn’t any. Not just because of the grim picture he’d painted, but because he’d given me a glimpse of his emotions. There were feelings there.
Strong ones, if his reaction to my question was any indicator.
He straightened and continued down the hall as if the moment had never happened.
I let him have that, willing to pretend none of this was happening. That my life hadn’t careened wildly out of control. Again.
“There were at least two, probably three or four people responsible for last night,” I said.
“Why do you say that?”
I thought about it. Telling him it was just a feeling probably wouldn’t instill a lot of confidence in my skills.
“The colors were all tangled,” I finally said, struggling to put into words something I just knew on an instinctual level.“From what I know of animating and controlling several constructs, it would be extremely difficult to direct that many golems unless the person was packing some serious juice.”
And we would have known if there was anyone like that in town.
Three golems, maybe five, but nearly thirty? I doubted there was anyone local capable of such a feat.
“Also, Hector wasn’t just sleeping. He was kept in a state of stasis while some type of white butterfly fed from him. It was totally different from whatever created the golems.” Whoever had done that to Hector was seriously powerful. As Fae, Hector would have had his own innate defenses against such magic. The fact they had overpowered him, signified we were dealing with a major power.
“I agree,” Liam said simply.
I stopped, frowning at his back. If he agreed, why did I have to explain all that?
“You have good instincts, but you also need to know why something feels the way it does,” he said in explanation.“Magic is tricky. It’s half-instinct, half-experience. You need to be able to distinguish between the two in order to use your ability to its full potential.”
He didn’t wait for my response, striding into the living room where Nathan sat on the couch flicking through TV channels and Eric stood with his back to us, staring out into the dark.
“Any news?” Liam asked.
Nathan straightened.“Thomas called, the High Fae arrived last night.”
“I’d hoped to have more time to prepare, but this isn’t entirely unexpected,” Liam said.
“Why is it important that they’ve arrived?” I asked, looking between the three.
Dahlia had implied last night that the vampires weren’t happy about the High Fae’s visit, but I couldn’t see why. Thomas had never shown any particular desire to ban any of the spooks from the city, much less an entire species.
There were Fae all over the city. Granted, they were the minor Fae, most not powers in their own right.
“The High Fae can be difficult.” Liam chose his words carefully.
Nathan scoffed.“That’s one way to put it. They’re xenophobic assholes.”
“This world tends to be hard on them,” Eric said, his voice a quiet rumble.“The amount of iron and human technology messes with their magic.”
“Then why are they coming here?” I asked.
“We don’t know,” Liam answered, his face grim.
